St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church, 2 Willowfield Cresent, Belfast, County Antrim, BT6 8HP

St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church is a large free-standing Gothic-Revival stone church built around 1935 to designs by architect Padraic Gregory. Located on the west side of Woodstock Road east of Belfast city centre, it stands on a substantial site between Willowfield Parade and Willowfield Crescent.

The church is set on an east-west axis and comprises a double-height nave with clerestory and side chapels. A three-stage square bell-tower and polygonal stair-bay project to the north, with a baptistery to the south. The building includes a sacristy and robing room to the west, and entrance porches to both north and south.

The exterior is constructed of rock-faced uncoursed sandstone with a chamfered plinth and pinnacled buttresses featuring masonry offsets and caps. The pitched natural slate roof has raised stone skews and kneelers with cross finials. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are positioned on moulded eaves with a dentilled eaves course.

Windows throughout are pointed-arch-headed with cusped leaded-and-stained glass in ashlar surrounds and chamfered sills. The east elevation features a gabled vestibule with a slightly projecting entrance porch containing paired entrances in a Romanesque-style stone portal. The replacement double-leaf timber-panelled doors have Gothic transom lights divided and flanked by collonettes on chamfered bases. A carved stone statue of the Virgin and Child sits on a stone plinth at the tympanum, with a carved Latin inscription over a chamfered archivolt with hood mould. Above at gallery level is a four-paned Gothic tracery window with hood mould and stops, surmounted by a diminutive opening.

The south elevation displays seven sets of paired windows across the clerestory, with the baptistery at the extreme right and a side chapel left of centre. An adjoining section has a projecting entrance porch. The baptistery contains three small windows; the adjoining section is two sets of paired windows wide. The porch contains a Gothic-headed double-leaf timber-panelled door opening south, with a window to the east elevation. The side chapel projects further and is four sets of paired windows wide with a parapet. The sacristy has two sets of paired windows and a metal-sheeted door at the left, accessed by three enclosed masonry steps.

The west elevation features a multi-paned Gothic-tracery window. The north elevation displays seven sets of paired windows across the clerestory, with the three-stage bell-tower abutting the centre-left and the projecting entrance porch abutting the tower to the north. An almost full-height polygonal stair-bay occupies the extreme left with a lower adjoining section; the side chapel and sacristy (lower) are positioned to the right of the tower. The bell-tower has a small window over the porch at the north elevation, a window to the second stage, and three louvered openings to the belfry on all four sides. It is surmounted by a dentilled frieze and castellated parapet with corner pinnacles. The entrance porch has a replacement Gothic-headed timber-panelled door in a chamfered recess with a stepped gable featuring a carved stone cross to the centre, and a window to the east elevation. Metal railings and a latch-gate enclose steps to an undercroft to the east of the porch. The two-storey polygonal stair-bay has irregularly arranged windows at each floor; the adjoining section is two sets of paired windows wide. The side chapel to the right of the tower is four sets of paired windows wide. The sacristy has a set of paired windows to either side of a slightly projecting entrance bay containing a double-leaf timber-panelled door with a Gothic-headed transom light, accessed by three enclosed masonry steps.

The church sits on a large lawned site with mature trees to three sides. To the west is a row of modern housing and stone boundary walling. The remaining boundaries on three sides are enclosed by a curved stone boundary wall topped by cast-iron railings with fleur-de-lis detailing and ashlar stone piers with decorative pinnacle detail to their caps. The north and east boundaries feature cast-iron gates on polygonal stone piers with dentilled and moulded cornices and carved cross detailing to the shafts.